Nutritional Evolution with Miki Ben-Dor

Have you ever wondered about the evolution of nutrition and how we got where we are in regards to what we consume on a daily basis? Today's guest, Miki Ben-Dor, has a PhD in archaeology and he focuses on the connection between human evolution and nutrition. Miki theorizes that humans are primarily carnivorous in nature, and we had an incredibly interesting and informative conversation about our nutritional past and what steps we took to get to where we are currently.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• Miki's background in economics and what caused him to make a drastic career change to archaeology (2:01)
• The importance of consuming enough fat in order to metabolize all the protein we consume (7:45)
• The use of tools in evolutionary history for the processing and consumption of meat (10:56)
• The timeline of australopithecus to homo erectus to homo sapiens and their nutritional habits (16:47)
• The origin and cause of the decline in Neanderthals (24:17)
• Homo habilis and homo erectus and the ecological triggers for evolution (27:17)
• The decline in megafauna and Miki's theory that one of the causes for extinction was because of the failure to fully utilize prey (37:57)
• Our innate preference for fat over plant matter on a biological level (45:12)
• The emergence of using fire and heat to cook food (47:40)
• The catalyst for humans tapping into agriculture for nutrition (53:02)
• Miki's opinion on the pitfalls of completely removing or severely reducing the consumption of meat (57:59)
• The recommendation to eat a lot of protein and fat as the safest dietary choices today (1:00;16)

Where to learn more from Miki and follow along in his research:

Paleo Style
Twitter

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